Top Banner

Featured Artists Showcase Work in Photography

by Mark Bullion on March 2, 2011 at 5:39 am

With March here, it’s now time to recognize two of this month’s featured artists.

Michelle Black of Studio 77 in downtown Zanesville has a knack for photography. She started taking pictures with a point and shoot film camera when she had her son around six years ago. At the time, she was in cosmetology school and worked at a salon and knew that cosmetology just wasn’t for her.

"I walked out of the doors of my salon and walked into the doors of a photography studio and said can you give me a job and so i started assisting a photographer in the area named Mike Carter for about probably a year and then I started off on my own," said Black.

She says she waits for the most natural moments to shoot by letting kids, in particular, be themselves.

"The key to getting that for me is asking the parents to not be involved in the shoot so it’s just me connecting with the child and observing how they react to the camera in letting them open up to me," said Black.

Another featured artist for this month is Megan Miller of studio 77 in Zanesville. Miller also specializes in photography. She shoots everything from weddings to children to couples along with other genres. She’s been shooting for two years now and says her daughter inspired her to pursue photography as a career.

"I took her to a portrait studio and I was not happy with the pictures. My husband bought me my first Canon and I’m self taught and I just started and it took off very quickly," said Miller.

Miller says she likes to capture people the way they are and avoids posed pictures. She says she’ll touch up the photos with photo editing software only if the picture calls for it.

"Sometimes maybe I fix the lighting a little bit, sometimes I put layers on it, it just depends on how I feel about that picture right then and there," said Black.

If you would like to view both Miller and Black’s photography work, it will be on display at this month’s First Friday, March 4th, at Studio 77 from 5-8 pm.